And now, here's the Best of The Rest of early September news!
Did I ever post a picture of the baby announcement that I designed and we sent out shortly after PrettyGirl got her full membership to Population Earth? Well, if I didn't, you can now see it at http://www.typecastpress.com/samples.html! Just click the thumbnail in the lower-right corner.
I'm pretty jazzed that my design was well-regarded enough to be used to sell the printing service!
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We went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival a few Saturdays ago. A friend of mine goes every year, but I've never taken him up on his invites to come along. But he was headed for Iraq soon, so I took this last chance to see him (before he left, hopefully not forever) and we all went down there.
A fine time was had by all. Well, PG was pretty non-plussed about the whole thing, but the rest of us had a good time. The whole thing was in a wooded area with permanent structures. Like a theme park that's only open a couple months out of the year. There were vendors standing here and there offering their wares ("Pretty garlands for the fair ladies," said one, both times we passed him.) There was a glass blowing workshop where they gave demonstrations and sold glass items. My friend had gotten M and I a couple of blue glass goblets for a wedding present a couple of years ago, and I suspect I know where he got them now. Very nice. There was jousting (which we missed) and other live shows. We watched "Macbeth in 20 Minutes or Less" and a two-man show that involved a lot of swordplay and beer drinking. Apparently, they weren't technically allowed to drink beer on stage, so they urged us, the audience, not to bring them any beers while pointing at the beer stand where one could get beer. And when someone brought them beer, they would insist they couldn't take it, in the meantime taking the cups and hiding them for later clandestine mug filling. They ended up drinking a lot of beer.
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I was looking at my high school's listing on Wikipedia a couple of weeks ago. There was a section that listed all of the school's State Championships, and my 1987 Cross Country team was not listed (nor, for that matter was the 1974 team.) So I signed up for a Wikipedia membership and added it. Problem solved!
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I was driving to work the other day and noticed a PT Cruiser up ahead with Moe, Larry and Curley airbrushed on the back. It was like those T-shirts you see at the county fair, only instead of a wolf in front of pine trees and a moon, you had The Three Stooges. Just their heads and shoulders, in an upside-down triangle configuration with Curley at the bottom point.
I pulled up closer and saw that the car was advertising an air brushing service. If you were trying to get people to give you money to air brush designs on your car, would you really use The Three Stooges as an example of your work? I have nothing against The Three Stooges, but I don't see them as being a hot-ticket item in the world of car decoration.
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And now, since it's taken me so long to get this done, the best of the current mid-September news!
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Our local classic rock station is playing every single song they have on file... in alphabetical order. They started last Monday at 6 AM, and, as of about 6:15 PM, they had gotten as far as the songs that start with "Love" (Love Hurts, Love Is A Battlefield, Love Is Like Oxygen (pronounced "ox-ee-jun",) etc.)
They claim they have no idea how long it will take. I'm guessing they'll be done by the end of this week. "Ziggy Stardust" will probably be the last song.
*********************
PG came home with pink eye on Wednesday and saw the doctor about it on Thursday. I felt bad that I had failed to keep her from catching it from me, but the doc thinks that PG had the germ first, and I got it from her, but it took longer for the symptoms to show up in her.
So PG was prescribed some ointment for her eye. We were directed to put some under her lower eyelid, which would upset her and make her rub her eye, thus getting the medicine in there. Things did not go according to plan, however, as PG is totally cool with there being goop below her lower eyelid. So we have to rub it in for her.
While at the doctor's office, PG weighed in a pound and a quarter lighter than the previous week's visit. We're guessing she had a big present stored up for her diaper when she got weighed previously. In any event, the doctor wasn't worried about the weight loss.
*********************
This past weekend had a few firsts, of various significance, for PG. The big one was that she had her first solid food. It wasn't really all that solid - pretty much a bowl of breast milk with about a tablespoon of rice meal mixed in - but it was a start, and it was also her first time in a high chair. The results were very messy, of course, but she took to it right away. She got a little mad when the rice soup wasn't coming fast enough, in fact.
Another first was her first time in a bouncer - a springy seat that is suspended from the doorway. The only other time I've seen one in action was when PG's cousin Todd was in one, back at the turn of the century. He thought it was the single greatest thing to happen to him at the time, and he made no bones about singing its praises to the world as loudly as a four or five month old baby can. PG didn't have the same reaction. She thought it was OK, but she wasn't overwhelmed with joy or anything. Of course, Todd never really liked being on the ground, so the bouncer had been like deliverance for him.
Finally, PG had her first bout of uncontrollable hair. At some point during her nap on Mommie Saturday morning, the front of her hair got pushed up and she spent the rest of the day with it sticking up. Put her in red checkered overalls, and she could have sold hamburgers. There was nothing we could do to get the hair down, not that we tried very hard. She looked silly with her hair like that, and I'm a big fan of silly babies. That night's bath took care of it.
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The new TV season starts this week. Tonight is Heroes and the time travel show, Wednesday is Bionic Woman (some of which I've already seen, since Amazon has been giving away free downloads of the pilot episode, in the hopes of hooking people into buying the whole season from them.) Smallville starts back up on Thursday, and Survivor has already started. Lots of shows to take up my time. M doesn't have any show to call her own, now that Gilmore Girls has gone. Of course, there's always Grey's Anatomy. I'll have to remind her about that.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Trackrick and PrettyGirl: Both Loved by Creatures Large and Small
Hey folks. I'm in the final lingering stages of a pretty nasty cold. I mention this not only to explain why it's been so gorram long since my last post, but also to explain why it might seem a bit... off. Since it's also a major theme throughout this post, it serves as a pretty good introduction too.
Wow. I just looked at the last post I made. Much has happened since then.
So, Labor Day Weekend was momentous. It began with a trip to the FedEx depot and ended with a trip to Nighttime Pediatrics. I'll get into the FedEx stuff in a bit. For now, I'm focusing on the NP thing.
PrettyGirl was fussy that weekend. A grump-a-wump, if you will. She had been wheezy since her doctor's visit, and pretty much everybody said that immunizations can cause congestion, so we weren't overly worried.
But by Monday, she was transcending grumpiness and entering into what appeared at times to be pure misery. An example that comes immediately to mind, no doubt because the memory of it is seared into my psyche now, is hearing her wake up from a nap. I was just sitting there at my new computer when I heard an air raid siren, coming from the playpen, slowly rise in volume and segue into a full-out sobbing wail. I assumed at the time that she was just upset about having been fooled into sleeping (she's not a fan of the playpen naps, y'see,) so I picked her up and assured her that everything was A-OK. She didn't seem to buy that.
She couldn't be consoled, and it wasn't time to eat yet, so I finally put her in the stroller and took her out for a walk in the neighborhood. She complained briefly, and then went to sleep. It was pretty hot out, and I was sweating pretty hard. Thus, when we finished our walk, and PG started crying again, I figured she was thirsty from the heat and needed some milk.
But PG flat-out refused to suck on anything, and indeed seemed to find the prospect of eating to be most upsetting. That's when we called the doctor.
The doctor told us to take PG to Nighttime Pediatrics right away. It takes a lot to get a baby to refuse food, so the doc definitely saw that as a red flag.
After a somewhat labyrinthine process, I finally secured an appointment for 8:20 (it was a little before 7:00 at this point.) Shortly after doing so, PG decided that eating was a good idea after all, and she calmed down a lot. We wondered if maybe we should cancel the appointment, but further decided that we would probably have to put as much effort into canceling the appointment as we did to make the appointment in the first place. Besides, if PG had refused milk once already, it was entirely possible that she'd do it again.
So we went to Nighttime Pediatrics and waited a while before being sent to a room. On the way to the room, we saw Finding Nemo playing on a TV in the hall. We turned the corner and saw another TV showing Finding Nemo. We went into our assigned room, and our Finding Nemo enjoyment continued uninterrupted.
Eventually, a nurse came in and weighed PG, took her temperature (using some sort of superthermometer that gets the temperature in only about a second) and got the basics of what was going on. She told us that the doctor had some sutures to take care of but would be with us as soon as he was done. So apparently someone else's kid was having a worse night than ours.
The doctor finally came in, and, of course, PG acted like there was nothing wrong with her. Instead, she got all flirty with the doctor, and just seemed to be enjoying her lot in life at that moment. The doctor joked that he was just that good, healing babies just by looking at them.
We gave the doctor some more details (been sounding congested, been waking up several times in the night all upset, etc.) and he whipped out the ol' ear scope thingy, stuck it in her ear, and said "yep, she's got an ear infection."
We totally didn't see that one coming.
A look at her throat confirmed it: PG had a cold and a sore throat (complete with slightly swollen and white-dotted tonsils,) which had led to an ear infection. There wasn't much he could do for the cold, but he gave us a prescription for antibiotics for her ear infection. This was just lovely, considering she was already taking the ringworm medication, which she hates with a passion that knows no bounds. The doctor gave us some pointers on how to get her to swallow medicine (stick the dropper way in there, and blow in her face,) though, so we thought we might have a chance at getting anything in her.
Since PG is on Kaiser Permanente (for now) insurance, we were one of the unlucky few who could not fill our prescription right there at the facility. So we went to our local pharmacy, with a stop at Burger King to pick up some long-overdue dinner, and placed the prescription. We went back home, I gave PG some bottle milk, which she willingly drank, and M went back out to get the medication.
PG and I waited about 45 minutes for M to get back (the doctor had neglected to specify how much to give us, so she had to wait for the pharmacy to get that info... she eventually gave up and waited until the next day to get it.) While we waited, I finally ate my Burger King, though I had to sing to PG in between bites to keep her happy. After a while, she calmed down, I finished my chicken sandwich in peace, and then we just sat and stared at each other. Apparently satisfied that Daddy was keeping an eye on her, PG fell asleep in her swing. It was 10:45 PM. She barely stirred when we took her upstairs and put her to bed. That's how I remember it now, 12 days later, anyway. And I'm not going to bother thinking back to make sure I'm remembering it correctly. I like this memory better.
The next day, PG slept a lot. Since she didn't have a fever, we got the OK from Nikki to take her to daycare, so she slept despite all the noise from the other kids.
After that, she was fairly good natured. Except when medicine time came. With both ringworm medicine and antibiotics to deal with, it wasn't pleasant. PG is like a 'gator when it comes to clamping down her mouth. After a day or two, M found out that she could mix the antibiotics with milk, so we started giving PG a little "strawberry milk" (the antibiotic was pink, y'see) from a bottle before moving her along to the direct Mommie source for the rest of her wake-up and bedtime feedings. Worked like a charm. The ringworm meds continued to be a sticking point (often resulting in a sticky face,) however.
I was finally able to get PG to take the ringworm meds by blowing rather hard in her face. The concept there is that she has to swallow to free up her mouth to breathe, which becomes a bit of an urgent matter, since Daddy's putting a whole mess o' carbon dioxide where oxygen is supposed to be. Unfortunately, I could only continue the practice for so long, because I got sick on Friday (the 7th) and didn't want to risk getting PG sick too. Blowing in one's face can be a good way to give them your sickness, I reckon. Although, I probably had gotten the germs from her in the first place.
I ended up getting pretty much exactly what PG had. Stopped up sinuses. Sore throat (also with the tonsil thing... the one thing that remains now.) No ear infection, so I had that going for me, at least. I took off work on Monday and ended up taking Thursday off too to see the doctor about a sudden onset of pink eye that hit me out of nowhere on my way to class from work Wednesday night. I'm not sure if I got that from PG too. She hasn't shown any signs of it, and I started avoiding her to make sure it stays that way.
PG had a follow-up appointment with her usual doctor Friday morning, and she checks out A-OK! I also got the green light to hold her, so long as I maintain responsible hand washing habits. That will not be a problem with me.
She also gained two pounds in the two and a half weeks since her last appointment. Growing baby!
********************
Now then, back to the FedEx thing. The expected Friday or Tuesday arrival of my new Dell ended up actually being Thursday, a day early. I discovered this when I got an alert e-mail from FedEx, letting me know that delivery failed because nobody was home to sign for it.
I was given two options. I could do nothing, and the driver would come back the next day and try again. Someone would have to be there to sign for it, of course. That wasn't going to happen. The other option was sign a slip giving the driver permission to leave the $1,900 computer system, with "DELL" written on the side of the boxes, on my front porch all day. Um, nope.
So I called FedEx to see if I could just pick it up on my way home. UPS has a conveniently located facility where you can pick up your package the very same day during convenient nighttime hours (well, until 8 or so, but that's still convenient for me,) so I figured FedEx would have one too.
FedEx did indeed have a facility for picking up stuff. But you couldn't get it the same day the driver tried to deliver it; you had to order a Hold on the package, effective the next day. And the facility is on the other side of town. And it closes at 4:30. I work 70 miles away from home and about 90 miles away from the FedEx facility. How lovely.
After much grasping for ways I could get my Dell anytime soon (after feeling out my boss, I established that leaving work extra-early on Friday would not be among them,) it finally dawned on me to see if the facility was open on Saturdays. Sure enough, it was! So the whole family took a trip to the east side of Baltimore on Saturday morning to pick up my computer, which I ended up not setting up for another day because I wasn't done clearing out my old computer.
Vista has, so far, not given me too many problems. I had read up on issues with the programs and games I usually use, so I was able to nip problems in the bud right away. Overall, I like Vista.
I also like my 24" widescreen flat panel monitor. It's kewl.
********************
There are other odds and ends to mention, but I think I'll leave it at this for now.
Wow. I just looked at the last post I made. Much has happened since then.
So, Labor Day Weekend was momentous. It began with a trip to the FedEx depot and ended with a trip to Nighttime Pediatrics. I'll get into the FedEx stuff in a bit. For now, I'm focusing on the NP thing.
PrettyGirl was fussy that weekend. A grump-a-wump, if you will. She had been wheezy since her doctor's visit, and pretty much everybody said that immunizations can cause congestion, so we weren't overly worried.
But by Monday, she was transcending grumpiness and entering into what appeared at times to be pure misery. An example that comes immediately to mind, no doubt because the memory of it is seared into my psyche now, is hearing her wake up from a nap. I was just sitting there at my new computer when I heard an air raid siren, coming from the playpen, slowly rise in volume and segue into a full-out sobbing wail. I assumed at the time that she was just upset about having been fooled into sleeping (she's not a fan of the playpen naps, y'see,) so I picked her up and assured her that everything was A-OK. She didn't seem to buy that.
She couldn't be consoled, and it wasn't time to eat yet, so I finally put her in the stroller and took her out for a walk in the neighborhood. She complained briefly, and then went to sleep. It was pretty hot out, and I was sweating pretty hard. Thus, when we finished our walk, and PG started crying again, I figured she was thirsty from the heat and needed some milk.
But PG flat-out refused to suck on anything, and indeed seemed to find the prospect of eating to be most upsetting. That's when we called the doctor.
The doctor told us to take PG to Nighttime Pediatrics right away. It takes a lot to get a baby to refuse food, so the doc definitely saw that as a red flag.
After a somewhat labyrinthine process, I finally secured an appointment for 8:20 (it was a little before 7:00 at this point.) Shortly after doing so, PG decided that eating was a good idea after all, and she calmed down a lot. We wondered if maybe we should cancel the appointment, but further decided that we would probably have to put as much effort into canceling the appointment as we did to make the appointment in the first place. Besides, if PG had refused milk once already, it was entirely possible that she'd do it again.
So we went to Nighttime Pediatrics and waited a while before being sent to a room. On the way to the room, we saw Finding Nemo playing on a TV in the hall. We turned the corner and saw another TV showing Finding Nemo. We went into our assigned room, and our Finding Nemo enjoyment continued uninterrupted.
Eventually, a nurse came in and weighed PG, took her temperature (using some sort of superthermometer that gets the temperature in only about a second) and got the basics of what was going on. She told us that the doctor had some sutures to take care of but would be with us as soon as he was done. So apparently someone else's kid was having a worse night than ours.
The doctor finally came in, and, of course, PG acted like there was nothing wrong with her. Instead, she got all flirty with the doctor, and just seemed to be enjoying her lot in life at that moment. The doctor joked that he was just that good, healing babies just by looking at them.
We gave the doctor some more details (been sounding congested, been waking up several times in the night all upset, etc.) and he whipped out the ol' ear scope thingy, stuck it in her ear, and said "yep, she's got an ear infection."
We totally didn't see that one coming.
A look at her throat confirmed it: PG had a cold and a sore throat (complete with slightly swollen and white-dotted tonsils,) which had led to an ear infection. There wasn't much he could do for the cold, but he gave us a prescription for antibiotics for her ear infection. This was just lovely, considering she was already taking the ringworm medication, which she hates with a passion that knows no bounds. The doctor gave us some pointers on how to get her to swallow medicine (stick the dropper way in there, and blow in her face,) though, so we thought we might have a chance at getting anything in her.
Since PG is on Kaiser Permanente (for now) insurance, we were one of the unlucky few who could not fill our prescription right there at the facility. So we went to our local pharmacy, with a stop at Burger King to pick up some long-overdue dinner, and placed the prescription. We went back home, I gave PG some bottle milk, which she willingly drank, and M went back out to get the medication.
PG and I waited about 45 minutes for M to get back (the doctor had neglected to specify how much to give us, so she had to wait for the pharmacy to get that info... she eventually gave up and waited until the next day to get it.) While we waited, I finally ate my Burger King, though I had to sing to PG in between bites to keep her happy. After a while, she calmed down, I finished my chicken sandwich in peace, and then we just sat and stared at each other. Apparently satisfied that Daddy was keeping an eye on her, PG fell asleep in her swing. It was 10:45 PM. She barely stirred when we took her upstairs and put her to bed. That's how I remember it now, 12 days later, anyway. And I'm not going to bother thinking back to make sure I'm remembering it correctly. I like this memory better.
The next day, PG slept a lot. Since she didn't have a fever, we got the OK from Nikki to take her to daycare, so she slept despite all the noise from the other kids.
After that, she was fairly good natured. Except when medicine time came. With both ringworm medicine and antibiotics to deal with, it wasn't pleasant. PG is like a 'gator when it comes to clamping down her mouth. After a day or two, M found out that she could mix the antibiotics with milk, so we started giving PG a little "strawberry milk" (the antibiotic was pink, y'see) from a bottle before moving her along to the direct Mommie source for the rest of her wake-up and bedtime feedings. Worked like a charm. The ringworm meds continued to be a sticking point (often resulting in a sticky face,) however.
I was finally able to get PG to take the ringworm meds by blowing rather hard in her face. The concept there is that she has to swallow to free up her mouth to breathe, which becomes a bit of an urgent matter, since Daddy's putting a whole mess o' carbon dioxide where oxygen is supposed to be. Unfortunately, I could only continue the practice for so long, because I got sick on Friday (the 7th) and didn't want to risk getting PG sick too. Blowing in one's face can be a good way to give them your sickness, I reckon. Although, I probably had gotten the germs from her in the first place.
I ended up getting pretty much exactly what PG had. Stopped up sinuses. Sore throat (also with the tonsil thing... the one thing that remains now.) No ear infection, so I had that going for me, at least. I took off work on Monday and ended up taking Thursday off too to see the doctor about a sudden onset of pink eye that hit me out of nowhere on my way to class from work Wednesday night. I'm not sure if I got that from PG too. She hasn't shown any signs of it, and I started avoiding her to make sure it stays that way.
PG had a follow-up appointment with her usual doctor Friday morning, and she checks out A-OK! I also got the green light to hold her, so long as I maintain responsible hand washing habits. That will not be a problem with me.
She also gained two pounds in the two and a half weeks since her last appointment. Growing baby!
********************
Now then, back to the FedEx thing. The expected Friday or Tuesday arrival of my new Dell ended up actually being Thursday, a day early. I discovered this when I got an alert e-mail from FedEx, letting me know that delivery failed because nobody was home to sign for it.
I was given two options. I could do nothing, and the driver would come back the next day and try again. Someone would have to be there to sign for it, of course. That wasn't going to happen. The other option was sign a slip giving the driver permission to leave the $1,900 computer system, with "DELL" written on the side of the boxes, on my front porch all day. Um, nope.
So I called FedEx to see if I could just pick it up on my way home. UPS has a conveniently located facility where you can pick up your package the very same day during convenient nighttime hours (well, until 8 or so, but that's still convenient for me,) so I figured FedEx would have one too.
FedEx did indeed have a facility for picking up stuff. But you couldn't get it the same day the driver tried to deliver it; you had to order a Hold on the package, effective the next day. And the facility is on the other side of town. And it closes at 4:30. I work 70 miles away from home and about 90 miles away from the FedEx facility. How lovely.
After much grasping for ways I could get my Dell anytime soon (after feeling out my boss, I established that leaving work extra-early on Friday would not be among them,) it finally dawned on me to see if the facility was open on Saturdays. Sure enough, it was! So the whole family took a trip to the east side of Baltimore on Saturday morning to pick up my computer, which I ended up not setting up for another day because I wasn't done clearing out my old computer.
Vista has, so far, not given me too many problems. I had read up on issues with the programs and games I usually use, so I was able to nip problems in the bud right away. Overall, I like Vista.
I also like my 24" widescreen flat panel monitor. It's kewl.
********************
There are other odds and ends to mention, but I think I'll leave it at this for now.
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